Class Reunion, No Drums Allowed

They’re back at it. These former high school classmates from Chicago who go by the name Class Reunion have released another album called No Drums Allowed.

The album’s title is also its concept, a concept which came from people telling the band that they “should create music without drums or any drum machines to see if [their] songs could stand on their own.” So they elected to “push the envelope” by generating a full album without any percussion.

No Drums Allowed includes some remixed older songs along with several new offerings.

There’s something kinda sedating and haunting about the background guitars on the track “Angel Heart.” Lyrically, it seems the speaker is in a state of passionate longing: “There must be a way / Two hearts can beat as one.”

“Alicia (My Darling)” is a bit more peppy at first. Then it gets a tad gloomy. There’s this bass line that just drops so low, and adds to a sense of despondency. Uh oh, I think I hear a bit of percussion in the form of a tambourine, no?

There’s this funny lil’ guitar riff that occurs at 0:55 on “Chi-Town,” a track which serves as a tribute to the band’s native stomping ground.

A touch of humor surfaces on the track “Me, Myself, and I.” The speaker here laments that people are telling him he needs to “see a shrink.” Moments of howling and laughter contribute to a sense of psychological aberration.

My favorite track is “The Nowhere Man,” which has both humor and sadness. A sympathetic character emerges, one who declares: “They see me / And they don’t care.” I also dig the chorus: “I am the nowhere man.”

Speaking of sadness and hard luck, we have a track called “Chicago Cubs.” On that note, we also have a track called “This is the Year.”

The track “Hero” goes at one heck of a slow pace. The pace picks up a bit for the track “To Liz (Mi Destino).” There is something vaguely melancholy here. Tough for me to get more specific, as the lyrics are in Espanol. Despite my many years of Spanish classes, I remain completely useless in this regard.